The Purpose of Praise Singing

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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March 14, 2022

00:01: I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me this morning to Colossians chapter 3.
00:18: Would you turn the pulpit off, please? Thank you.
00:32: Now the focus verse of today is going to be verse 16, but for the sake of context, I do want to read verses 1 to 17, because this imperative that Paul gives falls in a context of a grouping of indicatives and imperatives that he provides to us.
00:57: And I want us to sort of see how it all fits together.
01:03: He begins in verse 1 by saying, If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
01:13: Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
01:18: For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
01:23: When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory.
01:29: Put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desires, covetousness, which is idolatry.
01:38: On account of these, the wrath of God is coming.
01:41: And in these you too once walked when you were living in them.
01:44: But now you must put them all away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
01:51: Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator.
02:03: Here there is not Greek or Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all.
02:16: Put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another.
02:27: And if one has a complaint against one another, forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you.
02:34: So you also must forgive.
02:36: And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
02:44: And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful.
02:54: Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
03:12: And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
03:25: Father, I pray that now as we seek to study your word, to open it together, to understand what it says, I pray that you would keep me from error.
03:36: For Lord, I am a fallible man and capable of preaching error, and I don't want to, not for my own sake only, but for the sake of those who will hear this.
03:45: Lord, as was reminded to us earlier, we don't want to send anyone away with a life application that would be wrong based on a wrong interpretation.
03:54: So Lord, let my words be true, and may your spirit be the teacher.
04:01: May your spirit open hearts and eyes and ears and minds.
04:07: And Lord, may we understand what your word has to tell us today.
04:11: In Jesus' name, amen.
04:16: I told the elders when we said we were going to do the conference, I said I wanted to do something a little different with my time because I'm going to be addressing the subject of singing.
04:27: That is the purpose of praise in corporate worship.
04:30: I said I want to use a PowerPoint only because there's a certain couple of places in this lesson where I'm going to actually show a couple of videos.
04:38: So if you're wondering why there's a television set next to me, this is something that I do in the academy.
04:44: Mike, you know you're part of the academy.
04:47: I'll use a PowerPoint as part of my lesson, and hopefully this will be maybe an encouragement for you to maybe take notes.
04:54: But I will say this, though.
04:56: If you want a copy of everything I'm going to put up here, I will email it to you.
05:01: Because if you don't want to sit there and try to write down everything, just send me a message, and I will email you the screens.
05:07: I do that for our class anyway.
05:08: That keeps people from having to sit there and try to squint and write everything that I'm saying.
05:14: So, with that in mind, let me begin.
05:18: Every Sunday, Christians gather in churches all around the world to worship God, and the necessary elements of worship are present in all godly Bible-believing churches.
05:31: All genuine churches will have preaching.
05:34: That is a necessary element of worship.
05:37: All Bible-believing churches will have prayer.
05:41: That is a necessary element of worship.
05:43: And those are the two things that we've heard about already.
05:46: But the part of the service which is often most diverse is the subject that I'm going to be discussing, and that is the subject of praise.
05:57: The subject of singing.
05:59: Depending on where you are in the world, this portion may look very different.
06:03: Think about how different ethnicities and different cultures express themselves in song.
06:10: I'm almost certain that when the Tao tribe in Indonesia gets together on the Lord's Day to worship God, that their songs don't look like our songs.
06:20: And even if their songs are the same words as our songs, they probably do not sound the same.
06:27: And so we understand there is a diversity of praise that is not only within Western Christianity, but it is within worldwide Christianity.
06:38: There is a diversity of praise, and in a sense, that is actually quite beautiful.
06:44: Because the Bible tells us that on that great day, that men and women from every tribe, tongue, and nation will praise the Lord together.
06:53: So that diversity will one day become perfect unity.
06:58: And until that day, we maintain that distinction of diversity, looking forward to that great day of unfettered unity.
07:08: However though, the diversity, as beautiful as it is now, is often one of the leading causes of congregational infighting.
07:18: It has caused no end of fighting within the church.
07:22: Music is one of the most divisive topics in the church.
07:28: Growing up, I had the opportunity to see two vastly different styles of music.
07:34: As many of you know, I grew up in this church, and when I was younger, this church was much more hymn-based in the style.
07:43: We didn't have screens, and we didn't have a lot of musicians.
07:48: We had one lady who played the organ, and if we were lucky, we had another lady.
07:52: Calvinists are not lucky.
07:53: If we were fortunate, we would have a second lady who played the piano, but that was it.
07:59: We had an organ and a piano, and we would sing hymns.
08:04: We had a choir in the loft.
08:06: Usually it was over here, and there was a choir, and they would lead those hymns.
08:12: But then I would go every third or fourth week, I would go and visit my mother at a different church, and my mother was in the Holiness Pentecostal movement.
08:23: And when I went to those churches, it was much more country in its style, and I mean that like in country-style music.
08:35: They played all kinds of instruments.
08:38: They played guitars and banjos and tambourines.
08:42: They had somebody playing the piano, but even the person playing the piano was much different than what I was used to here because the person playing the piano here was usually playing by the notes written on the page, and when I would go there, the person was playing not by the notes but by the chords.
08:59: And if you're at all familiar with the way music works, that's more like a guitar player will play by chord, and the piano player would also play by chord.
09:07: And so it was a very distinct difference that I sort of grew up on, seeing these different types of music.
09:16: And throughout my life, I've seen a radical change in the church, not just our church but churches in general.
09:25: Most churches, not all, but most churches have seen at least some change where the older hymns are giving way to restructured or rewritten hymns or maybe done in a little different style.
09:41: Songs that used to be held in the book are now often projected on a screen, and we've gone from one style to another.
09:51: Not always.
09:52: I know there's churches out there today that still do it with the hymn book, and they have no screens, and they don't plan to have any.
09:58: So I understand I'm not speaking universally.
10:01: But my point is, there are strong opinions everywhere, and what most people think is my way is the right way.
10:09: That's just the way it is.
10:10: Whatever way I'm doing it is the right way, and we tend to hold a very myopic view at that point.
10:17: That if I'm doing it right, then if you're not doing it like me, you're doing it necessarily wrong.
10:24: And that's not always the right attitude to have.
10:29: And another problem that I think, as I'm just sort of introducing the idea of talking about music and singing, another issue that I have seen, a problem, is not just that music creates congregational infighting, which it does, but music also sometimes becomes an inordinate focus for the church.
10:50: I'll give you a thought.
10:52: More money, more attention, more resources are devoted to the musical portion of the worship service in most churches than are devoted to any other portion.
11:06: Think about things like sound mixers, and speakers, and musical instruments.
11:12: And those are all things that are purchases, but then also ongoing expenses, like the purchase of musical licensing to be able to play certain songs.
11:22: I don't know if you know this, but churches that play songs, just about any Christian song has to have a license to sing it publicly and to display the words publicly.
11:32: It's called a CCLI license.
11:36: It's Christian Copyright Licensing Industry puts out a license.
11:40: And all of these things are part of that, because music is unfortunately not free.
11:44: And artists like to be compensated for their work.
11:49: And so all that's part of these things that happen, it's a conversation, and money goes into it.
11:56: And when the sad part becomes, is when that becomes the focal point of everything, and music becomes the driving force behind a church, that obviously is wrong.
12:10: In fact, I was thinking like this, I've met a lot of people who say, oh, I love my church.
12:18: And you ask them, well, what do you love about it? The music is so good.
12:22: Oh, what about the preaching? Well, the music is so good.
12:24: Oh, what about anything? Well, the music is so good.
12:27: And they have come to the idea that what we're looking for in worship is a grand house of entertainment.
12:40: And the church becomes a place where entertainment is the focus.
12:44: And what better way to be entertained than to do so with music that is loud and encouraging and sensual.
12:56: So if we think about it, we need to consider the fact that if music is the thing that drives us, if singing is the thing that is our focus, then we're out of order.
13:10: I went last today, not just because I go last every time and because it's my opportunity to have to preach after having eaten, which is never fun, but I went last because in order of importance, what I'm talking about is the last thing of importance.
13:28: There are even things that go in front of music.
13:30: We talked about maybe not even including music in this conference, but talking about the Lord's Supper and baptism.
13:35: But we decided to forego it and talk about music because we do have the Lord's Supper every week and we talk about it a lot.
13:41: And we felt like one thing we haven't discussed a lot is the theology of music.
13:45: And so we included that in.
13:46: But we do understand, and while music is vital, music is not to be the thing that drives us.
13:58: Now, music can be an encouragement to us.
14:00: We're going to talk about that in a little while, part of the purpose of music.
14:02: But when someone says, well, I go to this church because of the music, or if they say, we've got to play certain music to attract certain people.
14:14: Have you ever heard that? Have you ever heard somebody say, well, we have to play certain music, because if we don't, we won't get the young ones.
14:21: Or we have to play certain music, because if we don't, we won't satisfy the old ones.
14:28: And the attitude towards music then becomes very pragmatic because we forget about the one to whom we are singing.
14:38: Because if I'm preparing a song list for a Sunday morning, and praise be to God, Matt is now doing a lot of that work and has been a blessing to me and to our church, is coming alongside and helping put those things together.
14:52: So when we're putting together that song, or when he's putting together that song list, our thought should be, how does this drive the person to worship God and focus on Him, not on us? And not satisfy you, but that we all might together glorify God.
15:20: So with that in mind, thought has to go into it.
15:23: If thought goes into the preaching, and it should and it does, if thought goes into the prayers, and it should and it does, then thought should also go into the singing and the music.
15:33: It's not haphazard.
15:35: We don't just come up here on Sunday morning and throw everything together and hope it all falls into place.
15:39: No, I give Matt my sermon title and my text, because I'm usually writing my sermon Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, early in the week, so that I'm able to give him the information, what we're going to be preaching on, so that he can take the music and try to guide the thought process of the worship into the time of the preaching of the Word.
16:02: And it has a goal.
16:03: It's like a ramp.
16:04: It's like an on-ramp to get you on the highway of the sermon.
16:09: And the music becomes like an on-ramp for that purpose.
16:14: And so it's all thought about.
16:16: It's all considered.
16:16: It's not haphazard.
16:17: It's not done in any way that is just thrown together.
16:24: So with all that as a...
16:26: And of course, I just clicked the screen and something happened.
16:30: As all of that as a secondary line here, I do want to give you the outline of what I'm going to talk about today.
16:40: Here's the outline.
16:41: It's very, very simple.
16:42: We're going to talk about, why should we sing? Then we're going to answer the question of, what should we sing? And then we're going to ask the question, how should we sing? Very simple outline, wouldn't you say? Why should we sing? Or what should we sing? And how should we sing? So let's look first at why we should sing.
17:11: Let me ask you this question.
17:12: Does the Bible say we should? It actually does.
17:15: But it does so in a couple of different ways.
17:18: And that's what I want to give you.
17:19: I'm not just going to answer the question with a yes.
17:22: Because if I said, why should we sing? Should we sing? The answer is yes.
17:26: But why? First of all, what we have is we have examples in the Bible of singing.
17:33: The first one, it comes to us in the Old Testament.
17:36: The first examples of singing come to us in the Old Testament.
17:41: The entire book of Psalms is a hymn book for the people of God.
17:47: The entire book of Psalms is given to us as hymns.
17:52: Hymns and songs.
17:54: Psalm 150 says what? It's the last song.
17:58: It says, Praise the Lord.
18:00: Praise God in His sanctuary.
18:01: Praise Him in His mighty heavens.
18:03: Praise Him for His mighty deeds.
18:04: Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.
18:06: Praise Him, listen to this, with trumpet sound, with lute and harp, with tambourine and dance.
18:13: Praise Him with string and pipe.
18:15: Praise Him with sounding cymbals.
18:17: Loud, clashing cymbals.
18:20: Think about that every time you see Jerry over here on the drums.
18:25: And it says, Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
18:31: So the Psalm book is a book of songs, and at the very end of it is this admonition to sing.
18:40: Praise Him in every way.
18:43: But then we see other examples.
18:46: Not only do we have the hymn book of the Old Testament, but we also have examples.
18:51: 2 Samuel 6, verse 14.
18:54: David, it says, danced before the Lord with all of his might.
19:00: You might say, oh, wait a minute, Pastor, you're going to get charismatic on us.
19:03: Well, maybe a little.
19:06: David did dance before the Lord.
19:09: He was praising God, and as he praised God, he did so in a dance.
19:15: Now, his dance offended his wife.
19:20: His wife was embarrassed.
19:24: Now, there's a little bit more to that story.
19:26: He did take off his clothing, and he wasn't completely naked, but he was stripped down at least to what we might call our skivvies.
19:35: And so his wife's offense may not have been so much his worship of the Lord, but may have been more akin to the fact that it mentioned the ladies were there, and they were watching him.
19:46: But the point of it all is David not only writes the Psalms, many of them, not all of them, but he writes many Psalms, but he exemplifies praise by going before the ark of the Lord, which represented the presence of God, and he dances before the Lord with all of his might.
20:03: And when his wife challenges him and says, how dare you embarrass me by going out there and dancing? And he says, I'll embarrass you even more next time.
20:11: Now, that's a key standard version.
20:12: That's basically what he said.
20:13: I'll go do it more, and I will abase myself in the worship of God.
20:22: You know, one of the things I think keeps us from singing is embarrassment.
20:27: People will say, I'm afraid to sing out loud, because what if somebody hears me, and they find out that I don't have a good voice? First of all, I can tell you from experience, nobody cares.
20:41: Nobody cares if you have a great voice or a good voice or a bad voice.
20:46: If you are praising God, that is a wonderful thing.
20:51: David said, I'll embarrass myself to praise God.
20:57: Are we willing to embarrass ourselves, or will our pride keep us quiet? So we have examples in the Old Testament.
21:07: Let me get to where I should be.
21:08: I had to restart my computer.
21:10: We're here.
21:11: We have examples in the Old Testament of singing.
21:14: Many examples throughout the Psalms and many other books.
21:18: But we also have examples in the New Testament of singing.
21:22: I'll give you a couple.
21:23: It says in Matthew 26.30, when Jesus is preparing His disciples for His crucifixion, it says that they went out to the Mount of Olives, and they sang a hymn.
21:40: Have you ever thought about Jesus singing a hymn? Have you ever wondered what hymn He sang? I'm pretty sure it wasn't Amazing Grace.
21:47: But Jesus sang a hymn with His disciples.
21:52: Now, I could spend all the rest of my time on this, but if Jesus...
21:57: They say if it's good enough for Paul and Silas, it's good enough for me.
21:59: If it's good enough for Jesus, isn't it good enough for us? That to sing is good for the Savior? That He chose with His apostles to sing? That wouldn't it be something that we would think, by example only? Because I'm going to show in a minute, we're not only giving example, but we're giving precept.
22:18: We're giving command.
22:19: But just by way of example, we have the requirement of singing.
22:27: We also see this when Paul and Silas were in jail.
22:30: This is in Acts 16.25.
22:32: What were they doing in jail? It says they were praying and singing.
22:40: I don't know about you, I've never been to jail.
22:43: I kind of hope I maintain that record.
22:48: But I do know this, if I ever do go to jail, especially for testimony in the Lord Jesus Christ, I hope that I'm able to sing a hymn to my Lord while sitting on a hard concrete floor.
23:02: Because that's what Paul and Silas did.
23:04: They turned a jailhouse into a house of worship and sang to the Lord.
23:12: So we have examples in the Old Testament.
23:16: We have examples in the New Testament.
23:19: But then we have direct admonition, or might I say direct command, to sing.
23:28: And so it not only becomes something we do by virtue of example, but it becomes something that we do by virtue of command.
23:37: And here I will give you a few verses.
23:41: Because we're going to look at Colossians 3.16, that's our main verse, and we're going to look at that very closely.
23:46: But there's a sister verse to Colossians 3.16, and that's Ephesians 5 and 19.
23:51: And Ephesians 5 and 19 is in the context of not being drunk with wine, but being filled with the Spirit.
23:59: And how are we to be filled with the Spirit? It says in verse 19, by addressing one another.
24:04: How are we to address one another? In psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord in our hearts.
24:14: That's how we are to address one another.
24:17: That's how we are to express the filling of the Spirit.
24:22: James 5.13 says this, he says, Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray.
24:29: But if anyone among you is cheerful, let him sing praise.
24:37: So we have these calls to sing.
24:40: But then we have, again, our main verse for today, and that is Colossians 3.16.
24:48: And it really does provide to us one of the main purposes for singing in the congregation.
24:55: It says, if you have your Bibles open there to Colossians 3.16, this is the ESV version.
25:02: It says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.
25:07: Now, the word dwell is the verb, the main verb of that particular clause.
25:15: And that verb is in the present active imperative, which means that it is a command.
25:23: In fact, I'll show you something.
25:24: And I know you can't read this, but I just want to, I'll read it to you and show you what's important about this.
25:29: This is Colossians 3.16 as Paul would have written it.
25:33: Halagos tu Christu enoi kato.
25:37: I'm sorry, enoi kato.
25:39: That's the word dwell.
25:42: There is no, the word let is actually not there.
25:46: The word let is actually contained within this word.
25:50: So when we see let the word of Christ dwell within you, well, the word of Christ is right here.
25:56: Halagos tu Christu.
25:57: That's the word of Christ.
25:59: And this word dwell is containing that.
26:03: How? We let that, or the better way, I think the better translation is make the word of Christ dwell within you.
26:12: You say, well, how do you do that? How do I make the word of Christ dwell within me? Well, we are given here three present active participles that all connect to that word dwell.
26:27: And they are teaching.
26:29: By the way, participle, typically in English it ends with ing.
26:33: Teaching, admonishing, and singing.
26:43: So, he says, make or let the word of Christ dwell within you.
26:48: How? Well, by teaching and admonishing, but then that is tied to the third one.
26:54: The teaching and the admonishing is actually tied to the third thing, and that is the singing.
27:00: You see, these three things are how the word dwells within us.
27:04: When the word is taught to us, it dwells within our hearts.
27:07: When the word is used to correct us, that's what admonishment means, the word correct, it dwells within us.
27:14: Have you ever been corrected with the word? Yeah, that will stick to your ribs when somebody corrects you with the word.
27:19: That will stick to you.
27:20: But, the last one, the singing, actually ties it all together because that's what Paul is saying is to be done.
27:27: How are we to let the word of Christ dwell within us richly? By singing, because it's in singing that we're taught and corrected.
27:37: Do you understand that music has the power to teach you? Music, well, let me back up.
27:44: Singing.
27:45: We're going to distinguish between singing and music in a moment because music is what goes with singing.
27:51: Singing has a catechistic quality.
27:55: And you know what a catechism is, right? Catechism is a series of questions that are meant to be memorized.
28:04: Music has a catechistic quality.
28:08: You say, how does it have a catechistic quality? Because we tend to remember that which we sing.
28:14: You know that because depending on what generation you are from, I could begin a song and you would probably be able to pick up and go through the lyrics.
28:36: And I'm not going to do that.
28:37: I'll do a dun dun dun da da da da dun dun dun da da da da Now if you're my age, you're going to stop, collaborate, and listen.
28:45: But if you're a few years older, you're going to be under pressure.
28:48: It's the same opening.
28:50: But you understand that even that little note series creates within us a memory palette.
28:55: It's a memory.
28:56: It's a it's a it's a it's a neural pathway that provides a memory that sticks with us.
29:04: And we do that.
29:06: How many of you can think of the hymns that you grew up with that you know all the words because you grew up singing them? And through that, you were taught the Word of God.
29:20: I told this story a couple Wednesday nights ago.
29:23: I don't think I've told it on Sunday.
29:25: But the young kids that come here on Friday, we do songs that are scriptural songs.
29:34: There's a couple of online groups.
29:36: Seeds Family Worship does scriptural songs.
29:39: Slugs and Bugs, it's another, it's a brand that does scriptural songs.
29:43: And one of the songs that they do is called The Fruit of the Spirit.
29:48: JJ, what's the fruit of the spirit? What is it? That's right.
30:03: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
30:09: Right.
30:11: And because it's set to music, we're able to remember it.
30:17: And even a six year old is able to internalize and know that the fruit of the spirit is not.
30:25: It's not a banana.
30:26: That's the joke.
30:27: The song says the fruit of the spirit is not a banana.
30:29: The fruit of the spirit is not a pineapple.
30:32: The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace.
30:36: Not a tomato.
30:36: Thank you.
30:39: So singing is didactic.
30:41: That's the word here, by the way.
30:44: Didascontes.
30:44: That is the participle for teaching.
30:48: And then nuthetuntes.
30:50: That's actually nuthetic where you get the word Mike mentioned earlier being nuthetic.
30:53: This is admonishing or correcting.
30:55: So these things here, didascontes and nuthetuntes, one another.
31:01: That's this word here, who toasts in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
31:08: This is a method for what? For the dwelling of the word of God within us.
31:15: The word of God dwells within us through psalms and hymns and spiritual songs because they teach and admonish us and it's one of the ways that God uses to teach us.
31:30: And so we look at that and we see we see the purpose of singing, but it's not the only purpose.
31:38: That's just one of the many purposes for singing.
31:42: Because if I were to ask you, why do we sing and you say, well, singing teaches us, singing corrects us, singing admonishes us, singing does that.
31:50: Yes, but that's not the only reason.
31:51: In fact, I would say that's not even the most important.
31:54: Because even though this verse tells us that's one of the reasons why we sing is so that the word of Christ might dwell within us, the main reason that we sing is that it glorifies God.
32:07: Even if it didn't teach us.
32:10: Even if those are ancillary benefits.
32:16: You see, we sing because it glorifies God.
32:19: God loves music.
32:24: God loves singing.
32:25: You say, how do you know that? Because the Bible commands so many times for us to do it.
32:33: Psalm 96, verse 1.
32:35: Sing to the Lord a new song.
32:36: Sing to the Lord all the earth.
32:38: Sing to the Lord, bless His name.
32:39: Tell of His salvation from day to day.
32:43: Psalm chapter 9, verse 11.
32:44: Sing praises to the Lord who is enthroned in Zion.
32:48: Tell among the peoples His deeds.
32:52: Psalm 30, verse 4.
32:53: Sing praises to the Lord, O His saints, and give thanks to His holy name.
32:57: This is what we're called to do because it glorifies Him.
33:01: Even if it didn't benefit us one bit.
33:03: I've already shown you that it does.
33:05: It benefits us greatly.
33:07: But even if it didn't, it's not about us.
33:11: It's about Him.
33:13: This is why I hate it when somebody says, well, I just don't like to sing.
33:16: That's okay.
33:19: It's not about what you like to do.
33:23: It's about what God calls us to do.
33:26: And if God calls us to sing, then, Bubba, it ain't about your preferences.
33:37: When we sing, we are putting the glory of God on display.
33:44: Come on now.
33:47: This is important because I have some videos I want to show you.
33:49: I don't want this to happen.
33:52: This is one of those times that I'm...
33:58: No, I'm just...
34:04: I want you to hear this verse.
34:05: I want you to see this verse, actually.
34:07: Because in the King James, it's a little different than the ESV, but they all say about the same thing.
34:10: Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 22, verse 3.
34:32: In the ESV...
34:33: Oh, wait, I hear Bible page turning.
34:35: I did ask you to go there.
34:36: So in the ESV, it says, Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
34:47: In the King James, it says, But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
34:55: You ever thought about that? That the Bible says that God is enthroned on the praises of His people.
35:00: That He inhabits the praises of His people.
35:04: That in a sense, when we lift up our praises to God, we are in a sense saying to God, in all of His glory, Lord, reign over us.
35:15: You are enthroned on our praises.
35:20: Again, we are glorifying the God who made us through song.
35:26: And I love Alistair Begg.
35:27: You know who Alistair Begg is? That wonderful Scottish preacher.
35:32: He says this.
35:33: He says, why do we sing? Because we're still on point number one, right? Why do we sing? He said, we sing because we have something to sing about.
35:42: That's why we sing.
35:43: We sing because we have something to sing about.
35:46: You know, Christianity is the most singing religion in the world.
35:50: Yes, Muslims do sing a little bit.
35:51: Yes, Mormons do sing a little bit.
35:54: I was going to say Hindus do sing a little bit.
35:56: And Taoists and Buddhists, they don't sing much at all.
36:01: But Christians sing everywhere and always because we have something to sing about.
36:06: You know what the Buddhists have to look forward to? Nothing.
36:10: That's what they're looking forward to.
36:11: That's what nirvana is.
36:12: Nirvana is a fancy way of saying nothing.
36:14: And they're looking forward to nothing.
36:17: I wouldn't sing either if that's all I had to look forward to was nothing.
36:23: I would, you know, I would have no joy in that.
36:29: But we have a reason to sing.
36:32: We have a joy to sing.
36:35: And again, we have something worth singing about.
36:40: All right.
36:42: What should we sing? I was asked the question, should we sing? Yes, why should we sing? We sing for several different reasons.
36:50: But what should we sing? What should we sing? Our text speaks of three different things.
36:56: It says, psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
37:00: Now the word psalms, interestingly enough, does mean, by definition, it comes from the word solo.
37:08: And solo means to play an instrument.
37:11: So a psalm is a song with an instrument.
37:17: By the way, I think this is an argument against the non-instrumental people.
37:22: You understand that there's people out there who say that we should not have instruments in the church.
37:26: You've heard of that, right? There are people out there that say we should not play any instruments in the church.
37:34: Well, we're told here to speak to one another or to admonish one another, to teach one another in psalms.
37:40: And the word psalm from the word solo, which means to play an instrument, means to play with music, to sing with music.
37:47: Now I understand there are arguments against that interpretation, but I think it holds based upon the definition of the word.
37:55: Those who are opposed to music in the church tend to say this.
38:01: They will say that the New Testament never commands the use of instruments.
38:06: And because it does not command the use of instruments, we cannot use instruments in the church.
38:11: And I say slow down a moment.
38:14: Because first of all, we have two testaments that describe to us how God is worshipped.
38:22: And as we are a new covenant, we are a new covenant church, we still can look to the example of the Old Covenant.
38:29: And what is the example of the Old Covenant over and over and over? God is praised through all kinds of instruments.
38:36: So when we say that we can't use instruments, there's some sort of disconnect there from the old and the new.
38:44: And like I said, I think it can be borne out when Paul says here, using psalms, I think the word psalm here indicates an instrumental song.
38:54: And then we have the word hymns.
38:58: The word hymns here denotes a solemn religious composition, a song of divine praise.
39:04: A hymn is a song of praise.
39:05: That's the definition of that word.
39:07: And we see those also.
39:10: And spiritual songs, pneumatakes, odeis.
39:13: You've heard the word ode, like ode to this or ode to that.
39:17: That's where this word comes from.
39:18: It's the word ode or odeis, and it is a spiritual odeis.
39:23: It is a song of a spiritual nature.
39:27: Now, there is a small content...
39:31: Well, I don't know if I'd call it small.
39:33: There is a group out there that say we should only play the psalms.
39:50: We should only sing the psalms.
39:51: And that group is called exclusive psalm-nity.
39:57: And they say when Paul says psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, he's just giving three different ways to identify the biblical psalms.
40:04: And their argument goes something like this, that we have an inspired hymn book.
40:10: The inspired hymn book is the book of Psalms.
40:12: Therefore, we should only sing psalms.
40:15: However, I do not agree with that particular interpretation of what Paul is saying here.
40:19: I prefer the Geneva Bible interpretation.
40:22: You know what the Geneva Bible is? Mike mentioned it earlier.
40:25: The Geneva Bible was the Bible that had taken the notes of the reformers and placed those notes alongside the English translation of the Bible.
40:34: And this was the notes of the reformers in the Geneva Bible at Colossians 3.16.
40:39: It says this, it says, By psalms he means all godly songs which were written upon various occasions.
40:45: And by hymns, all such as contain praise of God, and by spiritual songs, other more special and artful songs which were also in praise of God, but they were made fuller of music.
40:58: So what is the Geneva Bible note making there? It's saying that what we have is we have a variety.
41:11: When Paul says psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, he's not saying psalms only, or these are three ways to say psalms.
41:17: He's saying there will be a variety of the forms in which these teaching and admonishing songs will come.
41:25: In fact, those who demand psalms only, they say, well, it's the only God-inspired hymn book.
41:33: And here's my response.
41:34: And again, I know none of you take that position, I don't think, so I'm not really arguing with you, but I'm putting this out there as how I would respond.
41:41: You know me, I think like an apologist always.
41:46: If we only sing the psalms, we will never sing, we will never sing anything that directly and specifically uses words of Christ, the cross, or the empty tomb.
42:02: Because while the psalms do allude and point to the cross and to Christ and the empty tomb, we will never sing of those by name if we only sang the psalms.
42:17: Moreover, I will add this thought.
42:21: Philippians 2, verses 5 to 11 is sometimes considered to be, or it's actually called, if you look in your Bible sometimes that this is the heading, Philippians 2, verses 5 to 11 is called the Carmen Christi.
42:32: Does anybody know what the term Carmen Christi is? Carmen Christi means the song of Christ.
42:38: It's written in a lyrical form.
42:40: And therefore, it is considered by many, myself included, to be one of the earliest hymns of the ancient church.
42:47: And so it was written and preserved for us by the Apostle Paul.
42:52: What if we sang that? Would we be wrong because we're not singing one of the psalms? Not at all.
42:59: Not at all.
43:01: Those who demand psalm only, I think, are leaving out a wealth of potentially wonderful music for which we can worship.
43:13: Now, with that in mind, what does make a song appropriate for worship? What makes a song appropriate for worship? Because some people would say, Hey, I tell you what, if it's in the hymn book, it's appropriate for worship.
43:26: No.
43:29: I mean, honestly, you want to have some fun? Let's pull out the hymnal and let's start looking.
43:34: Because I can show you there's a few in the hymnal.
43:36: I'll be honest with you, most of the patriotic stuff is not fit for worship.
43:41: Don't get mad at me.
43:43: We are not here to sing America the Beautiful.
43:48: What's wrong with that? Nothing if you want to sing it at home.
43:50: We're not here to sing about America.
43:54: Get mad if you want to.
43:56: There's a reason why we come.
43:57: And it is not to sing songs that are meant to glorify our nation.
44:05: We're here to glorify our God.
44:07: And if you can't see the difference, maybe you have a problem.
44:13: There are hymns that are just trite and meaningless in the hymn book.
44:20: People will say, Well, all the contemporary songs are repetitive and meaningless.
44:27: Man, some of them old hymns repeat the same thing over and over.
44:32: And by the way, repetition is not necessarily wrong because the Bible says that the angels that sit around the throne of heaven sing holy, holy, holy all day long.
44:39: So repetition is not always an evil thing.
44:44: But some of them old hymns are just as repetitious as any new stuff.
44:47: And people say, Well, why don't we sing the old standards? Who made them standard? I remember I had that conversation right over there.
44:53: I remember the guy's name.
44:54: He walked out and he goes, I want to know why we don't sing the old standards anymore.
44:58: I said, I want to know who made them standards.
45:01: You talking about Isaac Watts? Is Isaac Watts an old...
45:04: Well, he wrote in the 1800s.
45:06: That has to qualify, right? That's over 150, 200 years old.
45:08: That has to qualify.
45:09: Do you know that Isaac Watts was hated by many of his contemporaries because he was considered to be a contemporary hymn writer? And the songs that he wrote were considered to be contemporary and therefore not good.
45:24: Just because something is old does not make it good.
45:28: Just because something is new does not make it bad.
45:34: Age is not the issue.
45:35: Content is the issue.
45:36: Style is really not the issue either.
45:41: Substance is what matters.
45:47: And when I was thinking about this, I got to thinking about what's acceptable and what's not acceptable.
45:51: What's acceptable and what's not acceptable.
45:54: Because John MacArthur's church, most people would say John MacArthur's a good church.
45:59: Grace Community Church, good church.
46:01: I watched the other day, they had to have been 150 people in the choir.
46:08: Maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but not by much.
46:11: All of them were regaled in the long flowing maroon robes with the gold vestment around their chest.
46:21: And all of them sang wonderfully in tune the praises of Almighty God.
46:30: And it was beautiful.
46:33: In front of them was a 15 piece orchestra playing everything from violins to little flutes and things.
46:46: They had the instruments.
46:48: They had the musicians.
46:50: And somebody would say, that's godly.
46:52: Oh, but these drums.
46:53: These are the devil.
46:56: Or that guitar.
46:57: I tell you what, if you can explain to me today what makes a violin somehow godly, but a guitar not, I'll buy your lunch.
47:07: Well, we already ate, so.
47:09: But you understand, it's ultimately at that point, it's perfect.
47:15: I went down to Sproul's church.
47:16: Now this is after he's been gone, but I know that this is not a change that happened after he passed.
47:21: I went down to Sproul's church.
47:23: They had an eight person choir.
47:27: It's like a mini choir.
47:28: It's close to a praise team, but don't dare call it that.
47:30: But they had a little eight person mini choir with their orchestra.
47:36: And they led worship with their little, they all had the vestments and the long robes.
47:41: But I say, is that what makes it better? Would it be better if Matt and I and Rachel and the rest of us wore a robe? Would that make it more holy? Brother Andy says, no.
47:48: He does not like the robe.
47:54: But you understand what I'm saying.
47:55: We start talking about what's acceptable and what's unacceptable.
47:58: Well, it's acceptable if they're all dressed the same.
48:00: And if they all stand in a line.
48:02: And if they all sing from books with notes rather than books with chords.
48:08: See, it becomes very subjective.
48:09: And at that point, meaningless.
48:11: Because once we start arguing over subjectivity, it is truly, truly meaningless.
48:17: And I'm going to say something to you.
48:20: You may argue this, and Matt and I even had a little discussion about this.
48:23: Not necessarily a disagreement.
48:24: We just discussed this.
48:25: There's really no such thing as Christian music.
48:28: It's Christian lyrics.
48:30: Because music is such a diverse thing.
48:35: Now, I will say this.
48:36: There are certain songs that lend themselves to the emotions that are probably overly sensual and in such would not be healthy for worship.
48:47: But that doesn't mean that we judge a song by the music.
48:51: We judge a song by the words.
48:53: And so I'm going to give you two thoughts.
48:54: Here are two things.
48:54: What makes a song fit for worship? Number one, it has to express proper theology.
49:00: If a song doesn't express proper theology, then it's not right for worship.
49:06: That doesn't matter if the song's old or new.
49:09: In Christ Alone, My Hope is Found.
49:12: That is a wonderfully theologically true song.
49:16: But it's only a few years old.
49:18: Behold our God, seated on His throne.
49:21: It's a wonderfully true song, but it's only a few years old.
49:24: How deep the Father's love for us.
49:26: How vast beyond all measures.
49:28: That He should give His only Son to make a wretch His treasure.
49:32: What should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer, but this I know with all my heart.
49:37: His wounds have paid my ransom.
49:39: These are wonderful truths that are given to us in new hymns.
49:46: And then you go back to older hymns like Since Jesus Came Into My Heart.
49:54: I like that song.
49:54: Well, I'm not saying not to like it, but I mean, do you think it really compares to Behold Our God? And the level of theology and truth that it's expressing? Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling, calling for you and for me.
50:15: Sounds pretty.
50:22: I wonder if He's waiting and watching, unsure of what's going to happen, because that's what the song sounds like.
50:28: That's right.
50:29: Makes Him a Savior who can't really save.
50:32: He's just watching and waiting, hoping you may come.
50:39: I'll give you a great one.
50:41: Now, you've probably never heard of this one.
50:43: This is called The Whippoorwill Song.
50:45: You ever heard this one, Mike? I'm just calling you out because you got up and left.
50:50: No, no, no.
50:52: The Whippoorwill Song.
50:54: Listen to this song.
50:56: Now I'm going to read the verses.
50:59: Actually, the title is I Give You Freedom.
51:02: I set the boundaries of ocean vast, carved out the mountains from the distant past, molded a man from the miry clay, breathed in him life, but he went astray.
51:11: I hold the waters in my mighty hand, spread out the heavens with a single span, make all creation tremble at my voice, but my own sons come to me by choice.
51:22: I own the cattle on a thousand hills, I write the music of the whippoorwill, control the planets with their rocks and rills, but give you freedom to use your will.
51:32: Even the oxen knows the master's stall, and sheep will recognize the shepherd's call.
51:36: I could demand your love, I own you twice, but only willing love is worth the price.
51:44: And if you want me to, I make you whole, I'll do it too if you say so.
51:50: I'll never force you, for I love you, so I give you freedom, is it yes or no? It's a song of celebration of free will.
52:01: And it ends with that...
52:03: I don't know how many of you in high school ever wrote a letter to somebody and said, check yes or no.
52:07: That's the way the song ends.
52:09: Like a check yes or no letter to God.
52:14: You see the problem I have when people say the old stuff's great and the new stuff's bad.
52:17: It's not that way, it's content that matters.
52:23: A song must express proper theology.
52:26: Number two, a song must be appropriate for corporate participation.
52:34: Must be appropriate for corporate participation.
52:39: Now, what does that mean? Not every song lends itself to singing with a group.
52:46: Not every song lends itself to group singing.
52:49: And corporate worship should not be a spectator event where you come in, sit down, get your popcorn and your soda pop, and watch us perform for you.
53:00: You hear me all the time say it, and I know I sound like a broken record, this is not a stage.
53:08: You heard me say that before? This is not a stage.
53:12: I like to call it chancel, because that's the historic name for it.
53:16: Other people who don't care for liturgical terms call it a platform.
53:23: Either one is fine.
53:26: But it is not a stage, because a stage is a place from which entertainment is presented.
53:34: And it is a place where the person on the stage is the focal point.
53:40: We have a platform, as Mike said, which lifts up the Word.
53:45: This is the focal point.
53:47: And everything that we do, singing and everything, points to God, the God of the Word.
53:56: So if the song does not encourage corporate participation, if it does not encourage everyone to participate...
54:03: This is, by the way, and I'm not saying it's always wrong to do solos.
54:09: But I remember, man, especially again, I mentioned my mom's church when I would go down there.
54:15: There was a special every week.
54:17: And you know what a special is? It's a solo.
54:21: And it was always, who's doing a special this week? Sister Rosanna, you're doing a special this week.
54:25: Lori, you're doing a special this week.
54:26: Sister Pat, you're doing...
54:27: Whatever.
54:29: Because somebody was going to get up and sing a special.
54:37: Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake have all been interviewed at different times.
54:46: If you don't know who they are, praise God.
54:48: But if you do, they're all pop singers.
54:53: Every one of them, when asked, how did you get started in singing? We started singing specials in church.
55:01: Katy Perry is the daughter of a preacher.
55:06: You see, we have turned this into a performance rather than a leading and encouraging of participation.
55:19: Everything that we do when we're up here singing is not for you in the sense of for your entertainment.
55:27: It is to you to encourage you to participate with us as we sing together before the throne of grace.
55:39: And if a song doesn't lend itself to corporate participation, it's not fit for worship.
55:43: It doesn't mean it's a bad song.
55:44: It doesn't mean it's not a Christian song.
55:47: I tell you what, Mercy Me is great.
55:49: I like a lot of Mercy Me songs and I'll listen to them.
55:52: There's one they got, Flawless.
55:55: It's kind of a cool song.
55:56: Especially the video of the song.
55:58: It talks about people who are broken.
56:00: One lady is in a wheelchair.
56:02: One guy is sick, got cancer.
56:04: And it talks about how in Christ you're flawless.
56:08: Because in Him, He's made all things new.
56:11: I like that song.
56:12: And man, I sing it with my kids and we dance around the house and we do stuff.
56:16: And I've tried every which way I can think of.
56:17: I say, would this work for corporate worship? It won't.
56:20: Because it's just not made to sing in this setting.
56:23: It doesn't make it a bad song.
56:24: It's just not made for this setting.
56:26: Does that make sense? So it's got to be, one, it's got to be theologically sound.
56:30: But just because it's theologically sound doesn't mean it's right for corporate participation.
56:33: It's got to fit both.
56:36: And so when you ask, how do you choose music? That's how.
56:39: First one's main one, theologically right.
56:42: Second one, it's got to be corporate, got to encourage corporate participation.
56:49: Now, with that in mind, I want to move now to the question of how we sing.
56:54: Because we've looked at why we should sing, what we should sing.
56:58: Now the question of how we should sing.
57:01: Because we are to sing all kinds of songs, psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
57:06: Well, how do we sing them? We've already addressed the subject of musical accompaniment or a cappella.
57:11: We've asked that question.
57:12: I think we've answered it.
57:14: But also ask this question.
57:16: Should we sing it like a bunch of dragging anchors, like a bunch of dirges? Should everything be sung with a sad face? I know we're Calvinists, they call us the frozen chosen, but I mean really, is it wrong to lift your hands? See, people get nervous.
57:30: So now you're getting charismatic.
57:32: It's a question I'm asking.
57:36: Should we be filling this place with praise? And does that matter how we sing? And I do want to mention something about musical instruments because this is where musical instruments does play a part in the how.
57:56: Because if we all agree, and I think all of us do, if we all agree that musical instruments are appropriate, we then have to ask the next question, and that is how does music fit in to what we're doing? Because as I said, there's a distinction between singing and music.
58:11: Can you sing without music? Yes, it's called a cappella.
58:15: Yes, you can do that.
58:16: Can you play music without singing? Yeah, we do that right before the service every week.
58:20: We play songs.
58:21: So there are two distinct things, music and singing.
58:24: So the question is, what is one for? You know, Spurgeon didn't like musical instruments.
58:31: Spurgeon said that he would rather...
58:35: How did he say that? I've got the quote here.
58:39: He said, I would just as soon pray to God with machinery as I would sing to God with machinery.
58:44: So he didn't like the...
58:45: In fact, this is how worship service was at the church where he was the pastor.
58:51: There was a bottom platform and a top platform.
58:53: The bottom platform, he would go down and he would lead everyone in singing.
58:56: No accompaniment, just the singing of the voice.
58:59: Then he would walk up the platform to where the pulpit was and he would preach.
59:03: And that was the method.
59:07: Nothing wrong with that.
59:08: If that's the conviction and that's where somebody's at, that's fine.
59:12: But if we're going to have music, we should understand what the music's purpose is.
59:18: Because music does have a powerful influence on our emotions.
59:25: If you don't believe that, then why do you think so much money and time is spent in film creating scores which are designed to give the films moods? When I was a young man, there was a composer.
59:43: His name was John Phillips.
59:45: I always jokingly say he wrote the score of my life because he was the one who wrote the score for Star Wars, Superman, and Back to the Future.
59:53: So all the movies that I grew up on, the scores of those films were written by John Williams.
01:00:02: And John Williams' scores are so powerful that all I need do is listen to the song and it takes me right back to being a young man watching those films.
01:00:16: Indiana Jones being chased by the giant stone or the Star Wars TIE fighter flying in and shooting down the Death Star.
01:00:24: All of those things are in my mind connected emotionally to that music.
01:00:31: So I know Matt has no idea what I'm talking about.
01:00:35: Matt and I joke about it.
01:00:37: He's not a movie guy.
01:00:39: So I'll say, hey, do you know this? No, he doesn't.
01:00:42: But I promise you I'm right about this.
01:00:45: Music is connected to our emotions, but it can be dangerous.
01:00:51: Because by connecting it to our emotions, it has the power to move us in ways that can be ungodly.
01:01:03: So we have to be careful with music and not use it as a tool of manipulation.
01:01:09: Now the screens are obviously not working and I'm dying because of it because I want to show you this.
01:01:12: So I'm going to take my laptop and hold it like this and I'm going to bring my mic down to it because I want to show you these examples.
01:01:18: These are so good.
01:01:20: This is bad music examples.
01:01:23: First one.
01:02:52: Listen to the rhythm of heaven.
01:02:56: Listen to the rhythm of heaven.
01:02:58: Listen to the rhythm, the rhythm of heaven.
01:03:00: Listen to how bad it is.
01:03:05: Good job.
01:03:06: All right, I'll stop.
01:03:07: It keeps going.
01:03:09: And it just keeps getting, they start adding drums.
01:03:11: Do, do, do, do, do.
01:03:13: Then they start at, it's just over and over and over.
01:03:16: Now here's another one.
01:03:17: Good.
01:03:17: Good.
01:03:20: Good.
01:03:21: Good.
01:03:22: Good.
01:03:24: Good.
01:03:26: Good.
01:03:31: Good.
01:03:33: Good.
01:03:35: Good.
01:03:36: Good.
01:03:37: Good.
01:03:37: Good.
01:03:40: Good.
01:03:41: Good.
01:03:41: Good.
01:03:42: Good.
01:03:44: Good.
01:03:54: Good.
01:03:55: Good.
01:03:56: Good.
01:03:57: Good.
01:03:59: Good.
01:03:59: Good.
01:04:00: Good.
01:04:00: Good.
01:04:07: Good.
01:04:07: This is New Spring.
01:04:10: This is 10 seconds, I promise.
01:04:12: This is New Spring Church, Sunday morning worship service.
01:04:16: This is how it began.
01:04:19: I'll take the mic.
01:04:31: If you're unfamiliar, that's Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train being used as the first song in a worship service.
01:04:39: Now I didn't have to go finding these very hard.
01:04:43: They're all over the internet.
01:04:46: I'm sorry if I hurt your ears and I'm sorry if I bothered you.
01:04:49: I'm trying to prove a point.
01:04:50: Music is dangerous if misused.
01:04:55: It can be used to manipulate the emotions.
01:04:58: It can be used to draw people down an aisle.
01:05:00: Why do you think they dim the lights, fill the house with smoke, and pump the music up to 11? Because music is powerful.
01:05:11: So with that in mind, we have to be careful.
01:05:15: And Matt and I have talked a lot about this, about what it is that we are trying to accomplish.
01:05:20: And we are not trying to accomplish emotional manipulation.
01:05:24: We are trying to accompany and encourage the singing of God's Word in the songs that we have chosen.
01:05:32: And the goal is to hear the voices above everything else.
01:05:35: And everything else is simply to support the uplifting of the voices.
01:05:39: And if it ever becomes that we are driving the manipulation of the emotions, then we have left worship behind.
01:05:49: There are three things to consider in the Christian life.
01:05:51: Faith, truth, and emotions.
01:05:56: And the problem is most people put emotions at the beginning.
01:05:59: Emotions drive the train.
01:06:02: And the truth is the caboose.
01:06:05: In reality, truth comes first.
01:06:08: What we sing must be true.
01:06:10: We must have faith in what is true.
01:06:13: And that will produce an emotional response.
01:06:14: I don't mind if you get emotional while singing.
01:06:17: I get emotional while singing.
01:06:18: Brother Andy gets emotional while preaching.
01:06:21: And so does Brother Mike.
01:06:24: We get emotional.
01:06:26: Emotion is not the enemy, Calvinists.
01:06:30: Again, the frozen chosen.
01:06:32: Emotion is not the enemy.
01:06:34: But manipulated emotion is dangerous.
01:06:40: And music which is intended to manipulate the emotion is not godly.
01:06:45: So I'm sorry for that dramatic example.
01:06:48: And I hope nobody is offended by it.
01:06:51: Thank you, Hope.
01:06:55: I want to finish Colossians 3.16.
01:06:59: It says that we are to let the Word of Christ dwell within us richly, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
01:07:11: And it goes on to say this, with thankfulness in our hearts to God.
01:07:17: How should we sing? With thankfulness in our hearts to God.
01:07:23: The emotion, if there is an emotion that pours out of us in our singing, it's thankfulness in our hearts to God.
01:07:33: You say thankfulness is not an emotion, it's an attitude.
01:07:36: No, but that attitude produces an emotion.
01:07:39: And you know what it is.
01:07:41: The attitude of thankfulness produces an emotion of appreciation.
01:07:46: We know what that feels like.
01:07:48: When you come to worship, do you come to worship because you are truly thankful for everything that the Lord has done? If so, I don't have to tell you to sing.
01:07:58: I just have to give you something to sing.
01:08:01: And people with whom to sing.
01:08:04: That's the key.
01:08:06: I don't have to make you sing.
01:08:08: I don't have to ask you to sing.
01:08:10: I just have to give you something to sing.
01:08:13: Because the goal, or the natural response of a thankful heart is to sing out in praise to Almighty God.
01:08:21: Why do we sing? We sing because God is infinitely worthy of our songs.
01:08:25: What do we sing? We sing songs that glorify Him, that express truth and right theology, and that are singable.
01:08:33: And how do we sing? We sing with thankfulness in our hearts to God.
01:08:39: So sing.
01:08:41: And if you don't want to, repent and then sing.
01:08:47: Sing.
01:08:48: Sing for joy.
01:08:49: Sing with thanksgiving.
01:08:51: Sing when it hurts.
01:08:52: Sing when it heals.
01:08:54: Sing.
01:08:55: Sing.
01:08:57: Sing.
01:08:58: Let's pray.
01:08:59: Father, I thank you for your word, for your truth, and I do pray, Lord, that this has been a lesson which will move us toward a desire to sing to you.
01:09:12: And Lord, I know there are probably a lot of questions about music that I didn't get around to.
01:09:16: But ultimately, Lord, you've called us to sing.
01:09:21: Whatever questions we may have, let it never be that those questions discourage us from being willing to stand in your house on your day and sing your praises to your glory.
01:09:34: In Jesus' name, amen.
01:09:39: All right.
01:09:41: Everybody else got to do the questions, so we'll see if there's anybody who has questions for me.
01:09:45: And if the question is, why did you bring those songs, I'm not answering it.
01:09:49: Here you go.
01:09:52: All right.
01:09:53: So does anybody want to ask a question? Brother Matt's going to bring the microphone around.
01:09:59: We lost our one questioner.
01:10:00: He's gone.
01:10:01: He's not feeling well.
01:10:06: I'll answer her questions at home.
01:10:09: Anybody have a question? Jennifer has a question.
01:10:13: No, it's okay.
01:10:14: I'd rather ask it here because it might help somebody else out.
01:10:19: I know there's a lot of debate within different churches about Hillsong or Bethel music.
01:10:27: I think we sing those here, but I wondered what you thought about those.
01:10:31: Okay.
01:10:32: That's actually something I didn't put in my sermon because I thought somebody might ask, and I did not tell you to ask that question.
01:10:37: So just to be clear, I did not have a ringer.
01:10:41: But what she's asking is a debate that's going on right now, and that is the question of modern artists who we know are not in line theologically with the truth.
01:10:54: I mentioned IHOP.
01:10:56: If you don't know what IHOP is, that's not the International House of Pancakes.
01:10:59: IHOP is the International House of Prayer, and it's not a house of prayer.
01:11:03: It's a house of ungodliness.
01:11:05: They preach a false gospel.
01:11:07: They proclaim many false things about God and about Christ.
01:11:13: And so people say, well, what would you do if you were singing a song and you found out that song was written by somebody from that group? This is actually very difficult because the first thing you have to...
01:11:26: I would take MacArthur's perspective, and MacArthur made a good point when he was asked the same question at a conference.
01:11:33: He said the first thing has always got to be, what does the song say? And we addressed that.
01:11:39: Before we know who wrote it, we have to know what it says.
01:11:44: But I will say this.
01:11:45: A lot of stuff that's put out by IHOP, a lot of stuff that's put out by Bethel, a lot of stuff that's put out by even Hillsong now is not good.
01:11:54: So it doesn't pass the muster test anyway.
01:11:57: It doesn't pass muster initially because it's just not good.
01:12:03: A lot of it is sappy.
01:12:04: A lot of it's trite.
01:12:06: Some of it's just straight out wrong.
01:12:09: Some of it comes in a way that is...
01:12:13: they call it Jesus is my girlfriend songs.
01:12:15: I don't know if you've ever heard of that.
01:12:17: I mean, honestly, if you can sing a worship song and you don't know whether you're talking about Jesus or your girlfriend, then there might be a problem there.
01:12:24: Because if it doesn't express...
01:12:26: Thomas Cramner said this, and I didn't get this directly from him.
01:12:28: I actually got this from Alistair Begg.
01:12:30: But Alistair Begg, quoting Thomas Cramner, who was Archbishop of Canterbury, he said Christian music that's used in the church should be reverent, should be distinct, and should be simple.
01:12:41: By simple, he doesn't mean stupid simple, but singable.
01:12:45: Everybody should be able to sing it.
01:12:46: So it should be reverent, distinct, and simple.
01:12:50: And I think irreverence is a major problem in a lot of their songs.
01:12:55: So I think, is it possible we might ever sing a song by somebody that not everybody agrees is a good guy? Yes.
01:13:02: But I think a lot of their songs aren't going to pass muster when it comes to what the content is.
01:13:08: And content has to come first.
01:13:10: But there are, to add a thought to that, there are also songs that we would sing that are written by people that we wouldn't endorse.
01:13:22: Like, for instance, we all love the song, It Is Well With My Soul.
01:13:27: But the man who wrote it apostatized and became an unbeliever.
01:13:35: It's a great song.
01:13:37: We sing it.
01:13:39: So primary is what it says.
01:13:43: And after that, we have to be careful.
01:13:48: That's all.
01:13:49: That's my answer to that.
01:13:53: I just want to say, I think it shows the need for good leaders like we have here to make sure that that doesn't come into the preaching.
01:14:06: That's right.
01:14:06: That's right.
01:14:07: It's ultimately, you know, Brother Mike, Brother Andy, and myself have the responsibility of making sure what is sung and what is preached is in accordance with God's Word.
01:14:18: Now that doesn't mean we're perfect and none of us are above rebuke.
01:14:22: If somebody came to us and said, hey, we sang this song and it's a bad song and we all didn't notice, I doubt it.
01:14:28: But if we didn't notice, we wouldn't be unwilling to listen to that.
01:14:31: But yeah, I mean, in a sense, we have that role of participation and sort of gatekeeping.
01:14:44: Or perspective on how something is sung.
01:14:51: Like it would say, we do sing a song where it says that the Father turned His back on Him.
01:14:57: My perspective is that God did not.
01:14:59: But I don't think that that song is theologically incorrect.
01:15:03: I think it's the, what it's trying to convey is that God was pouring His wrath on Him and not His love.
01:15:10: That's right.
01:15:11: You can split haired if you want to make a song you don't really care for saying something that it does not.
01:15:16: That's right.
01:15:17: Like one of my songs, I almost mentioned it, but I didn't.
01:15:19: I don't really care for In the Garden.
01:15:21: Now don't shoot me because I know a lot of y'all like it.
01:15:24: I don't care for In the Garden.
01:15:26: If you don't know what that is, I come to the garden alone while the dew is still on the roses.
01:15:31: We all know it, but to me it just doesn't have much of a message.
01:15:36: You say, well God's present with you.
01:15:38: Okay.
01:15:39: Again, you could probably sing that song about your girlfriend and it not have much change.
01:15:45: And you say, well no, only modern songs are that way.
01:15:47: No, old songs can be that way too.
01:15:49: If it doesn't, remember what Cramner said, and again, he's not the standard, but I think it's his second point.
01:15:53: It should be distinctly Christian.